Set in a fantastical and dark pre WW2 Europe, this farcical murder mystery is about a hotel concierge, played by Ralph Fiennes, who is accused of murdering his anciently old lover. The story is told from the perspective of the hotel’s lobby boy, whom Ralph takes a shinning to, and who is along for the whole crazy ride. It was a bit of a slow burn at the beginning setting everything up, but once it got going, oh man was it amazing. Visually, its the most beautiful movie I have ever seen, watch the video below to see how they made some of the shots. Anderson’s best movie so far. Required Viewing.

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Aww… really? I was seriously just contemplating the other day how much I hated The Life Aquatic, and then how much I really, really hated Moonrise Kingdom. So then I vowed not to be fooled into watching another Wes Anderson movie. Do I actually have to see this one?

uhh, are you asking me to re-review it? Ok, hmmm… after careful reconsideration, I give this movie a new rating of Unwatchable! In all seriousness though, this movie is a freaking Gesamtkunstwerk. Its like all the artwork that Anderson had been experimenting with, the puppetry in the Fantastic Mr. Fox, the set design in Moonrise Kingdom, the CGI in the Life Aquatic, and the set pieces in Royal Tenenbaums, it all comes together perfectly here. It seems that your main contention with Moonrise Kingdom (I liked) and Life Aquatic (no like) was poor character development. But Grand Budapest has great character development of the 2 main characters, they remind me of Royal Tenenbaum and Max Fischer, without actually being too much like them. My ONLY contention with this movie is that there was no need to use the flashback trope. The film’s modern day is set in the 1970s, F. Murray Abraham is telling Jude Law about the hotel in the 1930s for some reason. There was no good reason to do that, they could have just set the movie in the 1930s: it made the movie start off slow. Anyway, I cannot guarantee you will like this film, Bill, but I thought it was brilliant.

Amazing film! Rushmore still holds a special place in my heart, but this maybe be my new favorite Wes Anderson movie. I kind of liked the framing narrative though. From the actual events that make up the plot to F. Murray Abraham telling Jude Law about them to Tom Wilkinson telling about how he wrote the fictionalized account to the punk girl who’s read the book and is visiting the author’s grave, it removes the story just far enough to make it seem like some magical story where the realism and the facts don’t make a difference, where you don’t have to analyze the characters, you can just watch them and enjoy their story for the pleasure of it. Anyway, fantastic film and I second your required viewing rating.